Free range: what's your definition?

[Homestead Family]

Carli,

Yes, I would say you have free range chickens. I don't know how big your fenced area is, but if sizable enough, your birds have freedom to eat what they find in that area. They can scratch for food, eat grass, experience sunlight, etc. So, in my book, that makes them free range.

We have a very large fenced area for our chickens (for their safety), and they roam freely within that area, and I have no problem calling them free range chickens. We sell eggs to people calling them just that. When you ask the average egg buyer at a farmers market, they understand "free range" to mean generous access to some type of grass, bugs, and sunlight. Which is much better than how the USDA defines it.

Hope that helps.

 

[CluckyJay]

Wow, I guess were "Open Range" right now.

 

[joskt0204]

Mine are in a chicken tractor about 20 hours a day, and open range the remainer. They are shut in at night, and off and on during the day, since we are still shutting the dogs up when the chickens are out.

 

[Marshchick]

Mine are free range, 12 chickens on an acre of land with only stone walls and a woodline border. We just haven't had time to build a run for them yet, so they get let out of the coop at 11 a.m. and they go back in on thier own around 7 - 8 p.m. We are going to build a run.

They have done a number on my hostas! Otherwise, they've not caused any damage to the yard, gardens, etc. As a matter of fact, their scratching for bugs and dust baths have kept the weeds down between my bushes! BONUS!

 

[Courtney134]

Quote:
That's what mine do... if not, they'd be dog food. I'd like to let them run around free, but we have fox and other such predators... occasionally my neighbor's rot will come over, and my chickens would be goners.

 

[bullyforme]

I live in a residential neighborhood with a big yard, but small compared to a more rural yard. No fence, just some natural vegetation borders. My 4 bantams have a wired run attached to their coop which they are in most of the time. I let them out while I'm outside with them, since they're still babies (8 weeks) and still "learning the ropes." They're still afraid of everything so I need to watch them when they're loose otherwise they'll be frightened into someone else's yard, the woods which line my back border, or the street. I don't know if I'll ever be able to let them run around loose without my supervision (at least until I can fence in my yard). I'm trying to train my dog to keep them in the yard without giving in to her prey instincts.

I don't consider them free-range, but I do consider them to have a life well above in quality then their commercially-raised relatives.

 

[adolf7]

My chickens have quite the variety to choose from...grass, bugs, varying types of plants, yet they are fenced in an area about 20x30. Not falling into the free-range category?

 

[FireTigeris]

When my chickens free ranges there were fences they just went over or under them....

 

[hannakat]

Quote:

Couldn't pass this up.

"running amuck in the yard, and multiplying all willy nilly" ... They can't multiply willy nilly in a run/coop/fence? Touched my funny bone!!!


I will no longer call mine free ranged...they are just running amuck multiplying everywhere!!!!

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
That depends upon where the fence is at. We keep 2500 hens on about 30,000 square feet of lush pasture with a 6' fence around it. I'm not talking lawn grasses, but good pasture grasses and legumes; meadow foxtail, clover, alfalfa, and plenty of broad leaf volunteers. They do not even come close to laying it bare. I'd still consider it free range.